The gender pay gap is designed into our culture; here’s how we can design it out

More than 50 years since the passing of the 1970 Equal Pay Act, labour performed by women continues to be undervalued in the UK (Giapponi and Mcevoy, 2005; Bornstein, 2018; Yearby, 2019). Even when controlling for factors such as experience and contract type, one study found an unexplained gender pay gap in the UK of 10.5% (Boll and Lagemann, 2014). A 2014 report by the European Commission found that it would take over 70 years at the current rate for equal pay to become a reality in Europe (Brown and Rickard, 2018). The impacts of pay inequality are far-reaching. Families with women as the sole breadwinners are more likely to live in poverty. Women also face financial jeopardy in their retirement due to the cumulative loss in pay over their lifetimes. As more women struggle to meet the cost of living, this increases the number of citizens reliant on government welfare schemes. The gender pay gap is therefore not just an equity issue but a significant economic issue (Mitchell, Levine and Phillips, 1999; Giapponi and Mcevoy, 2005; Bornstein, 2018). Women who are paid less than their male counterparts are also more likely to experience depression and anxiety. Perceptions of workplace discrimination are associated with poor mental health and could affect employee morale and worker productivity. Workplaces with inequitable pay schemes may not only struggle to recruit and retain female employees but could risk being faced with lawsuits and costly litigation (Giapponi and Mcevoy, 2005; O’Reilly et al., 2015; Yearby, 2019). <a href="https://uxdesign.cc/the-gender-pay-gap-is-designed-into-our-culture-heres-how-we-can-design-it-out-ad31b14cb40e">Read More</a>